Ideological diversity, hostility, and discrimination in philosophy

Members of the field of philosophy have, just as other people, political convictions or, as psychologists call them, ideologies. How are different ideologies distributed and perceived in the field? Using the familiar distinction between the political left and right, we surveyed an international sample of 794 subjects in philosophy. We found that survey participants clearly leaned left (75%), while right-leaning individuals (14%) and moderates (11%) were underrepresented. Moreover, and strikingly, across the political spectrum, from very left-leaning individuals and moderates to very right-leaning individuals, participants reported experiencing ideological hostility in the field, occasionally even from those from their own side of the political spectrum. Finally, while about half of the subjects believed that discrimination against left- or right-leaning individuals in the field is not justified, a significant minority displayed an explicit willingness to discriminate against colleagues with the opposite ideology. Our findings are both surprising and important, because a commitment to tolerance and equality is widespread in philosophy, and there is reason to think that ideological similarity, hostility, and discrimination undermine reliable belief formation in many areas of the discipline

The diagonalization of quantum field Hamiltonians

We introduce a new diagonalization method called quasi-sparse eigenvector diagonalization which finds the most important basis vectors of the low energy eigenstates of a quantum Hamiltonian. It can operate using any basis, either orthogonal or non-orthogonal, and any sparse Hamiltonian, either Hermitian, non-Hermitian, finite-dimensional, or infinite-dimensional. The method is part of a new computational approach which combines both diagonalization and Monte Carlo techniques.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, new material adde

Introduction to stochastic error correction methods

We propose a method for eliminating the truncation error associated with any subspace diagonalization calculation. The new method, called stochastic error correction, uses Monte Carlo sampling to compute the contribution of the remaining basis vectors not included in the initial diagonalization. The method is part of a new approach to computational quantum physics which combines both diagonalization and Monte Carlo techniques.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur

A Catalog of Cool Dwarf Targets for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

We present a catalog of cool dwarf targets ($V-J>2.7$, $T_{\rm eff} \lesssim 4000 K$) and their stellar properties for the upcoming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), for the purpose of determining which cool dwarfs should be observed using two-minute observations. TESS has the opportunity to search tens of thousands of nearby, cool, late K and M-type dwarfs for transiting exoplanets, an order of magnitude more than current or previous transiting exoplanet surveys, such as {\it Kepler}, K2 and ground-based programs. This necessitates a new approach to choosing cool dwarf targets. Cool dwarfs were chosen by collating parallax and proper motion catalogs from the literature and subjecting them to a variety of selection criteria. We calculate stellar parameters and TESS magnitudes using the best possible relations from the literature while maintaining uniformity of methods for the sake of reproducibility. We estimate the expected planet yield from TESS observations using statistical results from the Kepler Mission, and use these results to choose the best targets for two-minute observations, optimizing for small planets for which masses can conceivably be measured using follow up Doppler spectroscopy by current and future Doppler spectrometers. The catalog is incorporated into the TESS Input Catalog and TESS Candidate Target List until a more complete and accurate cool dwarf catalog identified by ESA's Gaia Mission can be incorporated.Comment: Accepted to The Astronomical Journal. For the full catalog, please contact the corresponding autho